FTL Voidrunner
by vechmaster
Summary: Set several years after the end of FTL, this story follows the crew of the ship that destroyed the Rebel flagship


**Chapter 1**

The speaker cut through the noise of the docking bay.

"The time is fourteen fifty-eight AM Federation Standard Time, You have now arrived at Civilian habitation facility Quasar on the planet L1T6 in the Engi colony system."

Filip took a long deep breath, he was relieved that he didn't need to breath the same recycled air again after being cooped up inside the small Slug transport for the past three weeks. A Rockman guard at the arrivals station scanned his identity pass, when he saw who the pass belonged to he immediately straightened up to his full height and saluted Filip as he walked past the station and into the main complex.

The main complex of the Civilian habitation facility was akin to an Earth market, with stalls of all descriptions. One stall that caught Filip's eye was run by a particularly small Slugman and sold drone parts, Filip bought some drone parts and tucked them under his arm as he walked off to the mechanic yard.

The mechanic yard was just a nickname given to the ship repair bay at the facility. The mechanic yard was a large hangar with a seemingly endless maze of catwalks, and gantry cranes gracefully glided across beams on the roof and walls, the place was also bustling with Engi, a few Humans and the occasional Zoltan. Filip strode confidently into the mechanic yard and took a few seconds to scan the area and the people in it, suddenly Filip made a beeline straight towards an Engi that was working on a small repair ship's Drone control system.

"Jackson!" shouted Filip as he half ran half walked towards the Engi. The Engi finished welding a plate of metal and looked up.

"_SCANNING LIFEFORM… IDENTIFIED_" the Engi stood up "_GREETINGS HUMAN FILIP_" and the Engi stuck out its arm and gestured to Filip to shake its hand.

"How have you been Jackson?" Inquired Filip.

"_I AM FUNCTIONING AT 100% EFFICIENCY HUMAN FILIP_" responded the Engi known as Jackson.

"That's good, here I got this for you" said Filip as he handed Jackson the Drone parts

"_GRATITUDE = 4 __ 10__6_" replied Jackson as he took the parts. Jackson then walked over to a nearby table and placed the Drone parts on it, then Jackson's hands seemed to melt and reform into various tools and began work on the Drone parts.

"Jackson" said Filip, "Admiral Tully has asked me to gather the crew, he said nothing else except for us to come to shipyard Alpha 5 in 97 hours"

"_COMMAND UNDERSTOOD HUMAN FILIP, DEPARTURE SCHEDULED IN 16 HOURS, GOOD BYE FOR NOW HUMAN FILIP"_ said Jackson without looking up from his project.

Filip turned around and strode out of the mechanic yard and walked towards the departure station.

**Chapter 2**

Filip sighed as he walked up the ramp into the cramped personnel bay of the Zoltan science transport.

"At least" said Filip to himself, "My next stop is only one jump away". Suddenly the ships FTL drives began to charge and after a few minutes the loud whirring of the fully charged drives stopped and the ship lurched forwards as it jumped.

The station's design was very typical of the Zoltans, its main colouration was a dark, almost sickly, green with the occasional purple markings on the bulkhead stating the name of the station as well as maintenance hatches, docking bays and the locations of the escape pods. The station also glowed slightly, much like its creators.

The docking clamp slowly protruded out of the side of the station and seamlessly connected to the side of the Zoltan transport with a slight hum. The transport's airlock door slid quickly and quietly open and Filip disembarked. The inside of a Zoltan science station is a very interesting spectacle, all of the corridors were made of metal and coloured white with a slight green tint. The station also had no need for lights or wires, this is because the Zoltans naturally produce energy and a slight glow.

Filip began to walk down the corridors, and almost immediately saw the next member of the crew, Valeria the Zoltan, inside a small room with a dozen or so computer consoles. Filip was accustomed to Zoltan technology and pulled a small device out of his pocket, this device was supposed to give out a small amount of energy when switched on, the reason for this device is because most Zoltan technology only works when it is being supplied with energy from a Zoltan. Filip pressed one end of the device to the door and pressed the button on the device, the door slid to the side quickly and quietly, and Filip walked in.

Valeria looked up and span her chair around to face Filip almost as soon as the door opened.

"Ah, Good day Filip" said Valeria, "I trust that you are here to ask me to join the crew again, and to save you time my answer is yes".

"How did you know that?" stammered Filip

"Jackson contacted me three hours ago" Valeria replied quickly, "and as luck would have it, Filip, Jarek is here as well, he is in testing lab 31G". Valeria then got up and walked past Filip, only stopping to tell him that she will be departing in an hour.

Jarek was a Mantis. The Mantis are a race of six foot tall insects resembling a Praying Mantis. The Mantis are also a vicious warlike species that perpetually long for combat, be it one to one or in a space ship. They have also evolved to become the ultimate warriors, they have a slender yet powerful frame with an exoskeleton that rivals most body armours, a Mantis is also very fast and strong and wields two blade-like appendages on its front limbs, the saliva of a Mantis contains a very powerful enzyme that can eat through most biological matter in moments. It is also a known fact across the galaxy that it is a very rare occurrence for a Mantis to die of old age, however with the right combination of emotion management and pheromone treatments most Mantis can overcome their natural impulses for violence and create stable families but this is usually frowned upon on many Mantis colonies.

Filip opened the door of testing lab 31G, immediately a pungent wave of Mantis attack pheromones washed over his body, causing Filip to shudder. As Filip's head cleared he heard hissing grunts emanating from the room, and as he walked in he noticed that the floor was covered in a fine sand and sawdust. Jarek was standing in the middle of the room in attack stance, with several electrodes connected to his body, quickly slashing and striking a punching bag. Around Jarek there were several machines monitoring his pheromone levels, rate of respiration and brain activity, there were also many shredded and split punching bags littered around the room, Filip realised that is where the sand and sawdust came from. Jarek suddenly turned his head to face Filip and hissed at him, then before Filip could react Jarek was charging at him with his scythe-like arms raised and ready to strike.

Filip realised how foolish he had been, you never become the object of a Mantis' attention when it is attacking something, especially when the levels of attack pheromones were as high as they were then. Suddenly a cloud of pink gas was pumped into the chamber, as the gas was rapidly pumped out Filip saw how lucky he was, Jarek's face was only millimetres from his, and one of his blades was only inches from his neck. Jarek then backed away slowly and retracted his blades, he then perched himself on the ground and hissed

"My most sincere apologies, Filip", then the door swung open and an old Zoltan scientist walked in

"Ah", he said, "it is a very good thing that the pacification pheromone worked earthman"

"Yes, yes it is" replied Filip.

"most defiantly, otherwise the cleaning team would have a very large job indeed, and I would have lots of awkward forms to fill in!" joked the old Zoltan scientist, "if you two want to talk the, oh, what do you earthmen call it… ah yes the mess hall, the mess hall is the perfect place"

Filip and Jarek walked out of the testing lab and into the corridor. While they were walking Filip briefed Jarek on all that he knew and headed to the docking bay where they met Valeria again and headed into another Zoltan transport, the course was set for the Alpha 5 shipyard, and little did they know it the beginning of a Herculean task.

**Chapter 3**

The Alpha 5 shipyard was one of the largest Federation bases, it was also the site of the Rebel flagship's destruction three years ago at the hands of Filip, Jarek, Valeria and Jackson. The shipyard itself followed no species specific design, it was the physical embodiment of the Federation's goal, many species working together in harmony. Looking at one of the viewing monitors Filip witnessed the construction of a ship, although it was not being constructed in the regular human fashion. This ship was being created by an Engi hive, an Engi hive is a single entity comprised of hundreds, if not thousands of Engi, all intertwined and working on many parts of the ship at the same time. In the background Filip could see the flickering lights of Zoltan combat ships performing attack drills, as well as several Rock bombers being stocked up on missiles.

As the transport entered the docking bay and was secured in place by the docking clamps. Filip, Valeria and Jarek all confidently strode out wearing their Federation uniform where they were met by Jackson. Just as the four were about to exit the docking bay a human aged about 55 being closely followed by two Rockman guards called out to them, it was Admiral Tully.

"Welcome back!" he said as they turned around, "It's good to see you again after all this time"

"Sir" said the group simultaneously while standing to attention, "At ease" Tully responded almost immediately, "Follow me and I will brief you on the way" he then said and after a slight pause he span on his heel and walked towards a small Federation supply ship.

Once the ship had cleared the docking bay and began on its journey Tully spoke to the four.

"I have asked you to come here for a very important mission, one that is top secret and highly dangerous, and I think that you are the only crew capable to carry out this mission", the Admiral paused for a second then continued, "we will soon be docking with a small construction frame hidden away from the main base", Tully indicated to a viewing port next to him and suddenly a small space station disengaged a cloaking device, it had full Zoltan shields and several heavy laser cannons attached to it. The Admiral engaged the coms unit on the ship and gave his name and access codes, the weapons and shield of the station disengaged and the ship docked to it.

"This construction frame contains the most advanced ship created by the Federation, it has been equipped with several systems that will aid you in your mission" Admiral Tully stood up from his seat and indicated to the group to follow him through the docking tube.

"As you may know", continued Tully, "That after the destruction of the Rebel flagship by your hands three years ago the Rebellion began to crumble, however we have… obtained information that the Rebel leaders have diverted much of their resources towards a single sector, and we have reason to believe that they are constructing a second flagship, and we need you to locate this new monstrosity and destroy it", Tully stopped walking and turned around to face the group, his face suddenly turned stern, "lots of good soldiers have died to get this information here, do not fail this mission".

The door behind Admiral Tully opened up and they walked through, they all stopped and stood in awe of the sight before them, they saw the ship that was being constructed. The ship was sleek, resembling a large sword, but the most remarkable thing about it was that it was entirely black and if you were to observe it in empty space you would not be able to see it . A scientist then walked up to the Admiral and declared.

"Sir, the Federation Star Ship Voidrunner is good to go, all systems working perfectly, here is the system report"

The scientist handed the Admiral a small screen, on it there were various statistics and numbers, Admiral Tully then turned to look at Filip, Jackson, Valeria and Jarek and said.

"It is time that you departed, you will be joined by Douglass, he defected to the Federation during the first weeks after the Flagship's destruction, he has an in depth knowledge of many of the Rebel's security codes, he is waiting on the FSS Voidrunner"

The group of four boarded the Voidrunner and took their positions, Filip at the helm piloting the ship, Valeria at the shields providing extra energy, Jarek on the weapons system and teleportation bay and finally Jackson was stationed in the engines but would usually flit between different systems to repair them due to his advanced technical ability. Douglass was the last person to board the ship, he walked with a slow shuffle and his head was down, he carried a small case labelled Rebel access codes.

"Launch of the FSS Voidrunner and the activation of Operation Void bane will commence in T-minus 5…", the Admiral's voice boomed through the construction frame's intercom.

"4…"

"3…"

"2…"

"1"

A loud crash reverberated throughout the station as the scaffolding and gantry cranes shifted out of the way. A sudden and violent hiss marked the decompression of the construction bay and finally the FSS Voidrunner lurched forward, the launch scaffolding dragging it out through the bay and silently detaching as the ship was cast out into the dark vastness of space. Filip, Jarek, Valeria and even Jackson paused to marvel at this amazing event, meanwhile Douglass simply gave a half smile and turned back to his station in the hacking drone bay.

**Chapter 4**

Jarek had a lot of time to investigate the weapons capacities of the FSS Voidrunner while it was traversing the first sector of its journey, and he was quite shocked at what he found. The FSS Voidrunner, despite having a fully upgraded weapons system there were no weapons installed into that particular system, however, to Jarek's delight, the Voidrunner was equipped with a deadly array of fully upgraded cruiser weapons instead, two Artillery Beams and an Artillery Flak Cannon.

Meanwhile Valeria had been getting accustomed to the shield systems aboard the ship, the FSS Voidrunner was equipped not only with regular shields, but with a fully operational Zoltan energy shield. Jackson had been busy with programming the drones on board the ship, and Filip had been getting used to the particularly unique flight controls aboard the Voidrunner. The controls were unique in the fact that despite the ship being the size of a medium cruiser, it handled as if it was a light scout vessel, he thought to himself that it was a very impressive ship.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a large missile collided with the Zoltan energy shield causing the entire ship to shake. Filip immediately reacted and activated the turning thrusters and faced their attacker. The attacking ship was a small Slug raider, but it was decorated with pirate markings. Attached to the ship was what appeared to be a breach-missile launcher and a hull beam, the coms unit of the Voidrunner suddenly lit up and a human appeared on the screen, he was missing one eye and had several nasty scars on his face.

"That sure is one shiny ship you got there" he said in a voice that was akin to gravel in a blender, "You mind if we take it?"

The coms system shut off and the enemy ship began to move into attack positions, unfortunately for the pirate ship Jarek had already begun to charge the artillery weapons and they were locked on target. Just as the pirate ship began to swoop in for another attack run Jarek fired all weapons, the beams cleaved the pirate ship's hull straight down the middle and from one corner to the other. Multiple hull breaches were visible as the oxygen could be seen gushing out, then the Artillery Flak Cannon fired and the maelstrom of jagged debris pummelled and lacerated what was left of the pirates ship. The oxygen pouring out ignited and multiple explosions dotted across the hull, finally resulting in one final explosion that tore the unlucky pirates ship apart, leaving only scrap metal, chunks of shredded hull and a few mildly scorched FTL fuel pods floating in a disorderly mass. Filip swooped the FSS Voidrunner in to tractor beam range and collected the useful debris.

When the Voidrunner came to a stop Jackson activated the Drone AI system and a small Hull repair drone came buzzing out of the ship, orbiting it and occasionally diving in close to repair the hull, after about an hour the drone deactivated and the FSS Voidrunner recommenced its journey towards the sectors long-range exit beacon. As soon as the Voidrunner had finished jumping its crew were greeted by a small civilian colony station, Valeria attempted to hail it on the coms unit.

"Greetings Civilian colony, my name is Valeria Zeral medical officer and shield engineer of the Federation Star Ship Voidrunner, we are requesting permission to dock. I repeat we are requesting permission to dock".

There was no response from the colony, Filip decided to take a closer look at the station, as he pulled the ship in closer he could see that it had recently been attacked. The colony station had hundreds of scorch marks from missiles and multiple rips in the hull from a hull-smasher laser as well as three very neat punctures, it became obvious that the ship that had attacked the colony was military grade. Just as they were about to leave Valeria hurriedly said.

"Wait, there may be a slim chance that there are survivors, try using the life-form scanner"

Jackson booted up the life-form scanner and calibrated it, Filip then made a few passes around the station to get as much coverage as possible for the scanner. After a few minutes the scanner displayed its readings and it indicated that there was one survivor on floor 5 corridor 37b. Valeria and Jarek climbed into exposure suits, Filip also handed Valeria a pistol and Jarek immediately lowered himself into an attack stance. The two entered the derelict station and as the artificial gravity was offline they glided through the corridors on the fifth floor, they reached corridor 37b and immediately they saw an unconscious man floating in an EVA suit. Valeria kicked off of a wall and floated towards the unconscious man, she then searched the left wrist of his suit and located his radio number, she dialled his radio number into her and Jareks suit radios so they could communicate.

"meatbag!" hissed Jarek, "wake up". The man in the suit woke with a jolt, as soon as he saw Jarek and Valeria his eyes lit up with panic.

"don't worry" said Valeria, "we won't hurt you, we are just taking you back to our ship because you are injured", the man suddenly leaned in close to the two and said in a hoarse voice.

"It. It was a rebel ship that did this", with Valeria and Jarek holding the man they travelled back through the ominous corridors of the station.

Filip saw an orange shape appear on the corner of the view screen, the shape appeared to be moving towards them, Filip suddenly realised what the shape was and activated the shields.

"Rebel fighter, incoming!" shouted Filip through the com system, "Valeria, Jarek, get out of the station now!"

Valeria and Jarek activated the movement jets on their suits and accelerated down the hallway, however after a few metres a large humanoid figure lumbered out of a dark passage way behind them, it was at that moment when Jarek realised what the three neat punctures were caused by.

"BOARDING DRONES!" yelled Jarek, it was at that moment when the aggressive robot grabbed the leg of the man Valeria and Jarek were rescuing. The robot pulled the man back, wrenching him out of Valeria and Jarek's hands and dragged him back down the hallway screaming. Valeria cut the radio transmission and fired her pistol down the hallway in a futile attempt to damage the robot.

"Activate the teleportation bay Jackson, activate it NOW!" screamed Jarek as he swung his blades at another boarding drone that had lunged out of the darkness at them.

Jackson stumbled down the Voidrunner's corridors to the teleportation bay, when he got in his robotic hands split into many fingers and he tapped quickly at a console, and with one final press Valeria and Jarek appeared in the ship with a blinding flash of light. The two then ran to their stations as Filip span the ship into battle position and Jarek locked weapons, however several glowing laser bolts ripped through space and the shield sparked as it managed to block two of them, however the third hit its mark and the engines on the Voidrunner shut down due to the damage sustained.

With the ship spinning wildly out of control Jarek discharged the Artillery beams in the general direction of the Rebel ship, luckily one of the beams cut through cockpit of the Rebel ship causing the entire cabin to violently decompress sending the pilot hurtling out into space. Despite lacking a pilot the Rebel ship continued its onslaught with laser bursts lighting up the black background of space, the Voidrunner took multiple hits before it rotated back into firing position, Jarek fired the Artillery Flak and the Rebel ship was shredded by the cloud of shrapnel and with a bright flash the ship exploded.

**Chapter 5**

Alarms blared. People struggled into exposure suits. Toolkits were grabbed.

The crew of the FSS Voidrunner had just become aware of the multiple hull breaches in the engine room, Filip rushed to the drone control centre and attempted to boot up the internal maintenance drone, however the drone was smashed to pieces, there was nothing in the room that could have done it thought Filip, but he did not have enough time to worry about that. Jackson sprinted down the corridors, no one had seen an Engi move this fast.

"_DESIGNATION: ALLIES. PLEASE CLEAR PASSAGE_" blared Jackson, he wrenched the door to the engine room open, there was a sudden hiss as all of the air in the corridor was dragged violently out into space, sound stopped as the corridor became a vacuum and Jackson quickly walked inside the engine room.

In a pressurised section of the ship Filip grabbed hold of Douglass' shoulder and turned him around.

"Douglass you were on sensors, so why the HELL wasn't I informed of a rebel fighter heading straight for us!" said Filip in a raised voice, Douglass just shrugged and trudged back to his quarters. Jackson was still in the engine room, he looked up and saw the light of the hull repair drone's welding torch, Filip had managed to get drone control online.

It took four hours before they could begin to re-pressurise the engine room, thankfully there were no micro-breaches in the hull and Jarek and Valeria repaired the engines while Jackson recharged. Filip fired the stabilising thrusters and the Voidrunner stopped spinning. The FTL drive began to charge and the FSS Voidrunner jumped out of the sector.

Once the jump was complete the viewing monitors started up and then promptly crashed, Filip retracted the blast shielding and he stared out into the swirling gases of the nebula around them, Filip activated the coms system and notified the others.

"Hey, errm, we seem to have a slight problem", he said, "we appear to be in a nebula, I am switching to impulse drives and I will try to navigate out of this fog".

After five hours of blindly ambling through the nebula Jarek noticed a small Rebel transport ship drifting through the nebula.

"Filip, Rebel ship to the right" hissed Jarek. Filip stopped the ship and used the turning thrusters to get into firing position, but before Jarek began charging the weapons the Rebel ship rotated around and half of its hull was missing, not only missing but it seemed to have been melted away, with the crew still on board. Something streaked through the clouds around them but nobody noticed, Filip resumed course. Suddenly an automated Rebel strike ship lunged out at the Voidrunner, but, like the other ship, part of it was melted away. Again something streaked through the clouds, but this time Jarek noticed.

"Filip, there is a ship above us" hissed Jarek, "pursuing ship" replied Filip. The Voidrunner began to shadow the unknown ship, and after what seemed like hours the ship stopped and the crew of the Voidrunner could see what it looked like. The unknown ship looked amazing, it was coloured a very pure and shiny silver and had several glowing blue lights dotted symmetrically across its hull. The ship also seemed to be comprised of multiple knife-like structures, out of the inky gloom of the nebula a large spiny sphere tumbled towards the ship. Suddenly a medium sized mercenary ship, of human design, pounced out of the clouds, part of its engines and hull had been melted away, the screen on the com unit lit up.

"You metal FREAKS! Think that you can melt half my ship, DIE!" shouted the captain of the mercenary ship, his weapons powered up and charged towards the unknown ship. Almost immediately the strange sphere split apart and it revealed itself to be over half a dozen ships in the same design as the one that the mercenary was attacking, the unknown ships swarmed around the mercenary ship and the coms lit up again, but just long enough for the mercenary ship's captain to emit a blood-curdling scream before the com unit cut off.

The unknown ships descended like wolves and encased the mercenary ship, after about fifteen minutes they detached, Filip, Valeria, Jarek and Jackson peered out of the view ports at where the mercenary ship had been, there was nothing left aside from the asphyxiated and frozen corpse of the captain. One of the unknown ships approached the Voidrunner and before Jarek could arm weapons the com system lit up again, on the screen a large figure could be seen, however it was shrouded in shadows, the figure held up a small plastic device and a long stream of binary numbers flashed across the screen, the image cut off and Jackson appeared.

"_DESIGNATION: UNKNOWN ORGANISM REQUEST DOCKING PROCEDURES, AUTHORISATION REQUIRED_" said Jackson, Filip took a second to think and Jarek warned them against it, however Filip contacted the unknown ship.

"You have permission to dock" said Filip, the unknown ship moved towards one of the airlocks and it reared up to reveal its underside, the metal seemed to turn to liquid and a small docking port appeared and it connected to the Voidrunner.

The exterior airlock door opened and an immediate hiss indicated the oxygen being vented out of the room. Fillip, Jarek, Valeria and Jackson looked through the windows on the interior airlock door and at a huge bipedal figure step in, it stood seven feet tall and clad in shiny and seamless metal with orange eyes and a blade-like protrusion just below each of its shoulders. The exterior airlock doors closed and re-pressurisation of the airlock began, however the oxygen levels inside it still remained at zero, suddenly the interior doors slid open and the creature gave the plastic device to Jackson, and the doors closed again.

Jackson took a quick glance at the device and pressed several buttons on it and it turned on, the creature indicated to Jackson to place the device on the door and he did, the device began to emit a high pitched whine and slowly it changed into a static crackle.

"_…appreciation….first….non-violence…_" the device said, at the same time the creature was making gestures as if it was talking, "_….us name…..Lanius….._", "_…Lanius sleep…..long sleep….. Lanius old…_" blared the box once again.

"Why can't you leave our air lock?" asked Valeria, "_…Lanius…..body….destroy…..oxygen…._" spoke the box. "Would you mind coming to our med-lab?, I would like to study your species biology" asked Valeria. "_…..positive…._" responded the box.

Everyone apart from Valeria cleared the corridors and Valeria donned an exposure suit and grabbed the translator device off the door and the Lanius stepped out, they walked to the med-lab where Valeria asked the Lanius several questions.

"You said that you, the Lanius, were old, how old exactly?", "_…Lanius old…more old….than Human…_" responded the Lanius.

"You also mentioned something about a long sleep" continued Valeria, "_…..Lanius…..use metal…..Lanius…..metal…..are one…..no metal….Lanius sleep…_" responded the Lanius, "_…..Lanius command….metal….see…_" the Lanius picked up a scalpel and it seemed to become a liquid, it twisted and flattened and twisted more, after a minute it solidified and the Lanius handed the object back to Valeria. The scalpel had been shaped seamlessly into a miniature model of the FSS Voidrunner.

"_…..not….every Lanius….friendly…..not every… Lanius have...voice box…..don't know…can't…make talk….others violence….to Lanius….Lanius….defend Lanius…_" continued the Lanius. "Is it possible if I could take a few quick bio-scans?" asked Valeria "just for us to understand your biology", "_…positive…._" Responded the Lanius.

Valeria told the Lanius to lay on the scanning bench and after a few sweeps of the bio-scanner Valeria had created a hologram of the Lanius and its anatomy. "_….you have….been…..good to Lanius…..Lanius help…._" Said the Lanius to the crew of the Voidrunner just as it stepped out of the ships airlock and into its own ship, binary numbers quickly flashed on the com screen beside the airlock and Jackson told Filip that they had been sent the jump co-ordinates out of the nebula. Filip punched in the co-ordinates and the FTL drive span up and with a bright flash the FSS Voidrunner jumped to the next sector.

**Chapter 6**

The sector was surprisingly quiet, there were no stores within three systems from the Voidrunner, a medium sized cargo freighter passed by the Voidrunner and Filip tried to hail them.

"Greetings, my name is Filip Peterson captain of the FSS Voidrunner, Could you please give us any information on what has happened to this sector?" asked Filip.

The freighter pilot responded "Just go close to that planet". Filip flew the Voidrunner towards the planet, the view screens lit up and the planet was paradise, it has large calm pink seas, huge stretching beaches with milk white sand, vast lush forests and the entire planet was teeming with life. However before the Voidrunner could come any closer an automated message played on the com unit.

"_CAUTION UNKNOWN VESSEL. THIS PLANET IS CURRENTLY UNDER QUARENTINE LOCKDOWN 15B DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ENTER THE ATMOSPHERE OR THE SURFACE TO THERMOSPHERE ANTI-SHIP BATERY WILL OPEN FIRE_", the message repeated itself multiple times and Filip activated the reverse thrusters and pulled the Voidrunner away, Valeria activated the com system and spoke to the others.

"I have figured out why this sector is so quiet, there have been reports of mantoid clay-fever in this sector that has mutated to infect humans" she said.

"Mantoid clay-fever?" inquired Filip. "it slowly turns calcium and chitin into a mush that resembles clay" responded Valeria, "however" she continued "if we keep the energy shields active our ship should be safe from the virus, but just to be safe Filip, and as your medical officer I want you and Jarek in exposure suits now".

Now in his exposure suit Filip span up the FTL drive and accessed the beacon co-ordinates and jumped to the next beacon in the sector. As soon as they arrived though alarms blared and the fire suppression nozzles protruded out of the walls. The beacon was too close to a star! The com unit activated and on the screen stood a woman, her hair was short and patchy, she had a lot of sweat dripping from her fore head and there were feint orange/grey markings on her skin, her movements were slow and painful, she was in the late stages of the mantoid clay-fever.

"Oh look, our taxi has arrived" she said in laboured gasps, "see, we thought that the heat would stop the illness, so we moved our station and beacon here" she continued, "but… it didn't work!" she shouted just before she burst out into laughter and the com unit shut off.

"Fighters incoming!" hissed Jarek through the com system, "taking evasive action" replied Filip as he moved the ship to dodge a small Leto missile fired from one of the three out dated fighters, another fighter fired a low powered burst laser but Filip dodged those with ease too.

"They don't seem to be trying" said Filip, "it must be the fever" replied Valeria, suddenly multiple warning lights lit up aboard the ship just before a massive solar flare engulfed the Voidrunner and the three enemy fighters.

More alarms blared and the dull splashing noise of the fire suppression system could be heard. When the viewing monitors came back online the crew of the Voidrunner saw that two of the fighters had been completely destroyed, and one had stopped moving, the pilot had most likely burned to death. The com unit activated again and the woman spoke again.

"My ships!, what have you done to my SHIPS!" she screeched, quite obviously in pain, "I will end you!" she shouted before another solar flare engulfed the station completely destroying it, with the hostiles destroyed Filip managed to download the co-ordinates of the next beacon and initiated the FTL drive. The Voidrunner arrived at another empty system, however before anyone could even think of being relieved the alarms blared once more, this time they indicated an small dense asteroid field drifting towards them. Filip looked at a viewing monitor at the maelstrom of stone and ice that was about to shred them, however it was not asteroids that Filip saw, it was coffins, hundreds of thousands of coffins drifting endlessly in space.

"Do not bring one on board Jackson, it probably contains those killed by the fever" said Valeria over the com unit, Jackson replied, "_USER COMMAND: RECEIVED AND PROCESSED_". The sound of the teleportation bay activating and the sudden disappearance of one of the coffins caused Valeria to panic.

"DOUGLASS!" she screamed as she rushed to the teleportation bay to press the lockdown button, Valeria activated the com unit, "I forgot about Douglass. Douglass, if you can hear this put on an exposure suit now, I am teleporting the coffin away". Douglass was sitting on his bed looking through the schematics for the Voidrunner, when he heard what Valeria said he looked up at the com unit and smirked before getting back to studying the schematics.

"Hello, hello can anyone hear us?", said the com unit, someone was contacting the Voidrunner, "please respond, this is mining colony Zeus, ID number 45TL7"

"Yes hello mining colony Zeus, I am Filip Peterson pilot of the FSS Voidrunner, what seems to be the problem" replied Filip, "hello Filip, we are currently researching a cure for the Mantoid clay-fever and we need some electrolumase, would you happen to have any?" said the man on the com screen. "electrolumase? Isn't that naturally produced inside Zoltans?" asked Filip.

Valeria cut in, "yes Filip, mining colony Zeus, how much electrolumase do you require?", the man replied "I am sending over four sterile syringes, please fill them within safe limits". The teleportation bay activated and Jackson picked up the small box that was now inside and took it to the med-lab. Valeria sat on the operating table.

"Jackson, I need you to carry out the procedure, you have the steadiest hand" said Valeria, "the electrolumase gland is located on the centre of my abdomen, between my heart and third lung" Valeria indicated to Jackson where the needle needed to go and marked it with a dot of purple surgical aesthetic paste. Jackson picked up the first syringe and projected a thin green targeting beam onto the purple dot, he then moved his arm gently towards the dot. As soon as the syringe came into contact with Valeria a small green spark shot out and Valeria clenched her teeth as the syringe punctured the electrolumase gland, and a steady stream of glowing yellow green fluid filled the syringe, Jackson repeated the process three more times and packed the syringes into their box. After a few minutes Valeria felt strong enough to stand up, however she did not glow as much and she needed crutches to stand up.

"Don't worry, I should be fine in a few hours" said Valeria reassuringly to Jackson. Filip contacted the mining colony, "Mining colony Zeus, we have the electrolumase that you required", "Thank you, we will send another sterilised container with your payment inside, please give my thanks to your Zoltan crewmember" replied the man in the colony.

Filip opened the box and inside there were several FTL fuel cells and the co-ordinates for the next sector, the FTL drive began to spin up and with one final transmission of thanks from the mining colony the Voidrunner jumped to the next sector.

**Chapter 7**

As soon as the Voidrunner entered the next sector Jarek and Filip climbed out of their exposure suits, the com unit activated on audio only mode.

"Hi there!" spoke a smooth voice, "want to buy something? Let us dock with you and we can discuss prices" continued the voice, a ship flew out from behind and asteroid and Filip began docking procedures, after a few minutes a man in a smart suit stood on the bridge of the Voidrunner.

"So then, do you want fuel, selling two pods for 50 Federation credits" the man said, "no, we don't need fuel, we were hoping that you had some fire suppression canisters though" replied Valeria. The man's smile turned into a sneer, "you really shouldn't waste peoples time" he snarled, "activate teleportation bay, destroy their ship" the man growled into a small com unit on his wrist. Immediately Filip activated the Zoltan energy shields to prevent the man from teleporting off the ship, the shield also severed the docking tube and the now aggressive ship span around and began charging it weapons.

The man pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Valeria, but before he could pull the trigger Jarek used one of his blades to cleave the man in two, Jarek then scuttled to the weapons and fired all of them, causing the enemy ship to be sliced into quarters, buckle in upon itself and explode. Filip and Jarek carried the two halves of the man and flushed them out of the airlock, while the internal maintenance drone cleaned up. Filip attempted to download the beacon co-ordinates, however when he tried to he found that the beacon was not in range. He switched to impulse drives and searched for the missing beacon, after an hour an Engi fighter flew in front of them, the com system activated.

"_DESIGNATION:FEDERATION, HUMAN DEVELOPED ERROR ASSISTANCE IN DEBUGGING REQUIRED_" said the captain of the Engi ship, "Ah hello, I am Valeria Zeral, I am the medical officer aboard this ship, if you will let us dock I am sure that we can help you" replied Valeria. As soon as the docking tube pressurised the captain of the Engi ship beckoned Valeria inside, the Engi showed her to a sealed off room, inside sat a young man. The Engi warned Valeria and then opened the door, immediately the man looked up and growled at Valeria, he then picked up two knives and squatted down.

"_HUMAN LOGIC DATA CORRUPT, THINKS IT IS MANTIS_" said the Engi, "hmmm, I might have an idea" said Valeria, she then spoke into a coms unit on her wrist and after a minute Jarek scuttled into the room.

"What is happening?" hissed Jarek, "_HUMAN LOGIC ERROR, HUMAN THINKS IT IS MANTIS_" responded the Engi. "Could you talk to him Jarek?" asked Valeria, without saying a word Jarek scuttled into the room with the Human and lowered himself into attack stance, the man responded by swinging one of his knives at Jarek, in return Jarek quickly punched the man knocking him out.

Jarek and Valeria carried the man to the med-lab aboard the Voidrunner and strapped him to the operating table, when he woke up Jarek was standing over him, his face close to the man's.

"Where do you live?" hissed Jarek, the man responded by spitting at Jarek, knowing what would come next if Jarek spat back, Valeria interrupted, "please, could you tell us where your… nest is?" asked Valeria. After a few seconds of thought the man growled "civilian colony Grulmar", Valeria relayed this information to Filip and Filip searched for Grulmar on the com unit, when he found it he hailed the colony.

"My name is Filip Peterson of the Federation Star Ship Voidrunner, we have found a member of your colony and we would like to return him to you" spoke Filip, "Here, sending you our location data" said the coms operator in the colony. Filip flew to the location and a large station of Human design orbited a large ocean planet, after getting docking clearance Filip and Jarek brought the man out of the ship. They were immediately greeted by a pair of Mantis who scuttled quickly towards them, the man shouted gleefully to them.

"Mother! Father!", the two Mantis explained that they had found the man when he was a child and raised him. "He always dreamed of joining the Federation, but they would not accept him because he believed he was a Mantis" said the Mantis couple, "If you would like you could join our crew" said Filip to the man, his eyes lit up with glee, "Yes, yes!" he hissed, "My name is Swampson, but…but everyone calls me Swamps" he stammered. "Well Swamps we have a spare uniform in storage, it good to have you aboard!" said Filip.

As Swamps ran into the Voidrunner the Mantis couple thanked the crew of the Voidrunner and handed them a small box. When the Voidrunner undocked from the station Filip opened the box, it contained a few dozen small charred beetles, a Mantis delicacy. Almost immediately after the Voidrunner got out of communications range with the colony a huge Rebel Dreadnought, ten times the size of the Voidrunner, jumped in and immediately opened fire with its broadside mounted Anti-ship Battery.

**Chapter 8**

"ASB fire incoming!" yelled Filip to the others via the com unit while ducking and weaving the Voidrunner through the eternal gauntlet of the Anti-ship Batteries suppressive fire, the electronic whoosh of a teleport signalled potential intruders, however before Filip could inform Jarek he saw that Douglass was no longer on the ship, he had been teleported out .

The com unit lit up and on the screen was Douglass, he said "Glory to the rebellion" before shutting off the com unit. The Rebel Dreadnought turned its turrets to face the Voidrunner and it fired a salvo of Breach Missiles before jumping away.

Filip flicked the Voidrunner around and Jarek fired the artillery flak at the dozens of missiles that were locked on to them. The cloud of shrapnel detonated most of the missiles but the artillery beams destroyed only a small fraction of what was left, suddenly three defence drones were launched from the Voidrunner and dispatched the remaining missiles quickly. Filip wondered who had activated the drones because no one was close enough to the drone control bay to activate the defence drones in time, Swamps' face suddenly appeared on the com unit.

"all enemies destroyed!" said Swamps with a large smile on his face, the com unit shut off. Filip, Jarek, Valeria and Jackson all rushed to the drone bay to thank Swamps, when they got there Swamps handed them a bundle of papers and said "I…I found them in the meatbag Douglass' room… here on one of them it says… ion device", Swamps indicated to a picture of the ships schematics and on it a red dot labelled Ion device was drawn where the Voidrunner's oxygen recycling system was, the five ran to the O2 room and started searching the entire room, finally Jackson found what they were looking for. Nestled behind the filtration system was a bomb, it was the size of a large watermelon and its midsection was made of glass filled with a glowing blue static gel. Upon closer inspection Jackson discovered that its remote detonator had become dislodged, if it had exploded the entire O 2 system would have gone down, this coupled with the multiple hull breaches that the Breach Missiles were supposed make, the entire crew of the Voidrunner would have asphyxiated within minutes.

Filip searched Douglass' room, inside he found many schematics of the Voidrunner's hull, electrical, weapons and life support. It became obvious that Douglass was betraying them from the beginning, there were electrical parts scattered everywhere amongst tools and an empty canister of static gel, Douglass had left his box labelled Rebel access codes but before Filip could open it Jackson, Valeria, Jarek and Swamps burst into the room.

"IT'S A BOMB!" shouted Jarek before he snatched the box off the floor. Jarek was running as fast as he could on his four legs. He was running up walls and across the ceiling as he rushed to the airlock. The airlock was a few metres away and the interior door was open, Jarek lobbed the box as hard as he could and sent it flying into the airlock. Jarek lunged at the airlock control panel and slammed the button with his fist, causing a small dent. The interior door slammed shut and Jarek overrode the de-pressurisation sequence, the exterior door opened and the force of the air being sucked out of the airlock dragged the box careering into space. After a few seconds a blinding flash lit up the inky blackness of space as the fission bomb inside the box detonated with enough energy to dissolve small moon.

Jarek panted, he had been running at around forty miles an hour, usually this would not have been a strain for a Mantis but he was also carrying the weight of the bomb. Jarek considered himself lucky, he nearly didn't make it to the airlock, with a few swift button presses Jarek activated the com system.

"Filip, get to the bridge! We are hunting that traitor Douglass down!" spat Jarek, he was trembling with rage, "we find him we find the Rebels base" continued Jarek. The com unit shut off and Jarek headed to the weapons control room, Filip sat down in the pilot seat and span up the FTL drive. They were going to hunt down Douglass.

**Chapter 9**

Filip had managed to download the co-ordinates of the sector that the Rebel Dreadnought had jumped to from the beacon. The FTL drive fired and the Voidrunner arrived in a sector that was still under Rebel control, a very rare and unfortunate find.

A few minutes after the Voidrunner jumped a small automated Rebel security ship flew up to them.

"_DO NOT MOVE YOUR SHIP IS BEING SCANNED FOR ANY CRIMES AGAINST THE REBELLI…_" the transmission was interrupted because Jarek had discharged the artillery Flak cannon at near point black range and the automated security ship was shredded, almost immediately warning alarms blared as an Anti-ship Battery opened fire from a small moon. The Anti-ship Battery was within visual and weapons range and Jarek made two deep lacerations on the surface of the moon, completely obliterating the Anti-ship Battery.

The com system activated and Douglass was on the screen, "I thought I killed you" he sneered as the Rebel Dreadnought glided out from behind the moon, "No matter, I will just do it my-self" continued Douglass. Suddenly a small object was launched from the Dreadnought and it cleared the large gap between the Voidrunner and the Dreadnought within seconds. The object clamped itself to the hull of the Voidrunner and immediately the FTL drive began to spin up, there was a hacking drone attached to the Voidrunner.

The two ships jumped simultaneously into a different sector. The area around the two ships was completely devoid of features. The Rebel Dreadnought rotated around and fired its broadside mounted Anti-ship Battery. This was a common tactic used by large ships, the Anti-ship Battery does damage to large ships, or anything that gets in the way of the projectiles, as well as limiting the dodging options for smaller ships and fighters while the turrets pick them off with a combination of Heavy laser fire and salvos of Hull Missiles.

Filip and Jarek both knew that for the Voidrunner's weapons to be effective they would have to get close to the Dreadnought, Filip attempted to fly out of the Dreadnoughts cone of fire but because of the hacking drone the engines were only working at twenty percent. Jackson hurried to the Drone control bay and activated a combat drone, he manually steered it and with a few shots the hacking drone disconnected itself from the hull, then Jackson overloaded the combat drones reactor and collided it with the hacking drone completely destroying it. With the engines back online Filip accelerated as hard as he could, flicking the ship left and right, up and down as to avoid the turmoil of Anti-ship Battery fire that had engulfed the area around the Voidrunner.

Now out of the Dreadnought's cone of fire Filip flicked the Voidrunner once more to line it up with the Dreadnought and accelerated, the Dreadnought began to turn so its broadside was once again facing the Voidrunner, but the Voidrunner was too quick and in response the Dreadnought's turrets snapped around and began to pelt laser bolts at the Voidrunner. Filip corkscrewed the Voidrunner skilfully through the tempest of lasers and when they were within range Jarek fire the two artillery beams and destroyed three dozen turrets.

A small silver ship orbited around the battle and saw that the Rebel ship was firing on the Voidrunner, the ship jumped away. The Dreadnought had now managed to catch the Voidrunner in its Anti-ship Battery's flurry of shots, one shot glided past the Voidrunner's left engine nacelle leaving a small scorch mark. Suddenly the small silver ship jumped back into the sector, this time much closer to the battle and it hailed the Rebel Dreadnought and relayed its transmission through the plastic translation device on the Voidrunner.

"_…..the runner….of voids….is friend…the runner of voids…..is…Lanius…..Lanius protect…Lanius…._" Said the transmission, hearing this the crew of the Voidrunner looked out at the view screens at the small ship, it was of Lanius design but it had the Federation symbol seamlessly engraved on its top, Filip, Jarek, Valeria and Jackson all immediately recognised this as the Lanius ship that they had encountered in the nebula, the blue lights of the Lanius ship faded into red and Douglass appeared on the com units screen.

"HAH! Do you think that this small, puny ALIEN ship will defeat me" spat Douglass in disgust, as a sort of ironic response to Douglass' insult the control panels of both ships lit up, registering hundreds of FTL jump signatures. With a series of blinding flashes hundreds of Lanius ship of various sizes and designs jumped in to the battle field behind the first Lanius ship. All of the newly arrived Lanius ships had the Federation symbol crudely painted on their tops, in unison their blue lights faded to red, they then accelerated towards the Rebel Dreadnought, swerving and dodging through the maelstrom of the Anti-ship Battery's continuous onslaught.

On the Dreadnought Douglass jumped back in his seat, his eyes wide with fear and shock, "FIRE EVERYTHING! FIRE IT ALL!" he screeched at the crew of the Dreadnought. The Dreadnought's turrets snapped around, but before they could fire a vast array of weaponry protruded seamlessly from the front of the Lanius ships, the swarm spread out slightly and they all opened fire at the same time, annihilating all of the turrets of the Dreadnought as well as severely crippling its broadside mounted Anti-ship Battery.

The guns seamlessly slid back into the Lanius ships and before the Dreadnought could begin turning to open fire with its other broadside the Lanius ships engulfed one side of the Rebel Dreadnought and began to eat away at the metal. Oxygen and the occasional corpse could be seen slipping through the minute gaps in between the Lanius ships, a small piece of the Dreadnoughts hull jettisoned away, propelled by a small severing charge and a tiny Rebel fighter sped out of it and quickly jumped away. Douglass was most certainly aboard.

The Lanius ships all shifted into the Dreadnought and after a few more minutes what was left of the Dreadnought buckled and snapped in two, the Lanius ships still eating away at it. A few more minutes later the hundreds of ships dispersed, their lights had now turned blue again and they all began to jump away until the one small Lanius ship remained, it flew up to the Voidrunner and it said through the com unit.

"_…...runner of voids….you…kind ….Lanius… .thankful…... much…metal…_" buzzed the translation device, "_….gift…_" the Lanius said before jettisoning a small beacon like device and jumping away like the others. Filip used the tractor beam to bring the device on board and on it was the jump co-ordinates of the next sector, as well as a scrap of paper attached to it, obviously torn from a book, saying "Whistle and we will come".

**End of book 1**


End file.
